7/14/2011

One Solution To The Spending Problem

The ongoing disagreement between Congressional leaders and the President about the debt limit, taxes, and spending is showing the American people more than they wanted to see. To me this means far too many of the Democrats still seem to think we can fix the the deficit problem by spending even more money we don't have and can't pay back even if they make “the rich” pay their “fair share” in taxes, and the President acting like a spoiled and petulant child, placing all the blame for the outcome of his ill-advised and fiscally disastrous policies on the GOP because they don't or won't recognize his genius.

As much as the Democrats and the media try to spin it, the Democrats are about to reap what they've sown, namely a seriously broken financial system and the enmity of a large majority of the American people, particularly those in flyover country.

One commenter to a previously linked WSJ piece has proposed a solution to the spending problem with deep cuts for agencies and programs that manage to do nothing but waste billions of taxpayer dollars and create misery for far too many of the people they say they're helping.

Here we go. A quick way to save a few bucks.

2011 Budget Line items to consider - spending at the federal level, independent of state spending:

$129.8 Billion Education (why is the federal government involved in this?) - Zero out

$495 Billion Welfare (that's charity, right? Is this an enumerated power at the federal level or is it a state power? My take is I didn't see a charity power and Grover Cleveland agreed with me.

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people. The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."